Start Summit, a leading conference on innovation and entrepenurship

START global was founded as a student association of the University of St. Gallen in 1996 and has promoted entrepreneurial spirit in Switzerland ever since. From the year of its foundation, a group of 20-30 voluntarily active students has been organizing the START Summit, Europe’s leading talent conference for entrepreneurship and innovation. The main motivation has been to motivate and support young people willing to found their own business by spreading the entrepreneurial spirit.

This year’s START Summit offers a wide diversity of highly influential speakers united by their passion for entrepreneurship. With a total of seven speakers on the main stage, the attendees of the Summit will be offered exclusive insights into the views of Europe’s leading entrepreneurs.

Workshops

Since its introduction in 1996, the START Summit has always provided the optimal platform for intellectual and interdisciplinary dialogue between students, founders and investors. With an individually tailored set of 5 workshops chosen from a total number of over 30, the Summit manages to provide an experience suiting each participant’s interests.

Insights from Asia

The IPO of Alibaba amazed the whole world and reinstated the rise of the Asian startup scene. Living by the slogan from innovation to disruption, the START Summit is the first European conference to exclusively invite those pioneers from Asia. Having a Practical Asia Insight, the Summit 15 provides three speeches by each a startup, an investor and a corporate from Japan, China and Singapore.

Hackrun

START Summit where Tech meets Business. With the University of St. Gallen closely situated to the renowned technical university ETH Zurich, START global and the Entrepreneurs Club ETH have managed to build up a close partnership over the years. With the Summit 15 hosting its first HackaRun, the partnership is taken to a next level by bringing together coders and business students from Europe. Two kinds of students forming interactive groups will be given a 30-hour case study in order to challenge them to successfully work together and present their projects in front of a Jury on Friday afternoon. The following days of the Summit will be free of charge for all HackaRun participants.

ETH Startup Speed Dating

The ETH Startup Speed Dating is another format derived from the close partnership with the Entrepreneurs Club ETH. Startups will be given the chance to expose their enterprise, project or idea in a 30-second pitch to a selection of highly skilled participants. Whether looking for co-founders, employees or researchers, on one hand startups will be sure to find interesting people among the 100 candidates. With a total of 12 startup slots provided for speed dating, participants, on the other hand, will be likely to find what they are looking for. The event can be chosen through the application process. Applicants are advised to keep in mind that the number of participating startups is limited.

Investors, pitching, party

Meet the investor, being held in a similar format to speed dating, will be the place for startups to find investors. Having only 4 minutes, each startup will aim to convince investors of their idea.Chosen entrepreneurs or startups will get the chance to pitch their idea for a limited amount of time in front of a chosen jury and the whole START Summit 15 crowd. The winner will receive a check of 10.000 CHF including further benefits.

Concluding the two days packed with networking and pitching, START global invites all participants tot he legendary START Summit Afterparty at Trischli club in St. Gallen. Cocktails and the finest tunes will make the night legendary

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